Our International Student Ambassadors will tell you! They share their own stories of transitioning, studying, living, and achieving as international students at the University of Minnesota. Through their experiences, you can start to imagine your life studying at our prestigious university.

Recently in Housing Category

Hello Everyone.I hope you have been doing great.I wanted to share with you my experience of finding housing on campus.I know for many of the incoming graduate students,this is one big issue.I was able to take care of this before I arrived on campus and everything worked smoothly for me.I used basic tools like google map and the university housing website for this.I will tell you how.Let me tell you though,I am very lazy and I wanted to be somewhere really close to campus so I don't have to wake up early in the morning:)

When you accept an admission offer from the university,you are provided with an option to set up an internet access account on the university website.I would recommend to do it as soon as possible.It gives you access to a lot of resources on the campus portal.

The first step is to determine where you will be spending most of your time.You should check with your department website as where the main office is.If you are working in a lab,it will have a building address.

The second step is to login to the university housing website .This will take you to the housing and residential life and you could see more information about the on campus housing(Halls and dorms mostly).This link will take you to the off campus housing rentals.
You will be required to login using your university ID and password to access the system.Once you are inside,you will see this:
You can choose the type of unit,rent and neighborhood you want to live in.Its a good and credible way to start looking for options available in different areas around the campus.

Coming back to my experience,I used google map to find directions between the building where I was supposed to spend most of my time on campus and the places that I liked.I selected a place that was 5 blocks away from my campus and was on bus lines.Just go to google map and click on get directions.Enter the university building address and name,and enter the address from the listing you like most.Check if buses run between those two locations frequently.For example,if I want to go to Carlson school of management from my location,this is how it will look like:.You will get an idea how far is the closes bus stop from your place and if you will be able to commute comfortably from your home to be to the place where you will be found the most!

The rent is variable.For a furnished place closer to campus,you can expect to pay anything from $500-$800!The housing away from campus is cheaper.Your ultimate choice will depend on your preference.And remember,it is always advised to start early.Places around campus go as early as April for the coming fall leases,so just don't wait until the last moment to get the right place and deal.